


Of All People, Why Her?

by foxy_abb98



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Established Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams, F/M, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Whump!Danny, mcdanno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-07 11:45:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15218441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxy_abb98/pseuds/foxy_abb98
Summary: Steve's spent the week sneaking around and ignoring his boyfriend. Then comes home smelling of his ex. Danny has had enough. Will Danny's insecurities and doubts about Steve's past relationship break them?I suck at summaries, sorry guys! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ERamos9696](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ERamos9696/gifts).



> Hey Guys!
> 
> So after receiving absolutely lovely comments on my previous fics, I'm trying out my first multi chapter one! I hope it goes the way I want it to but I'm struggling for inspiration just recently.
> 
> Once again, any feedback is always appreciated!
> 
> This is also gifted to ERamos9696 for their absolutely lovely comments on my last few fics!
> 
> Thank you! Xx

All week long Danny had gotten the feeling that Steve was deliberately ignoring him. He’d began to notice the little things such as the lack of having a warm hand at the small of his back during a case debrief or the way Steve’s sly (and sexy) smirk was no longer directed at him when he thought no one was watching. He had racked his brains over and over to see if there was anything he may have done just recently that could have pissed Steve off but he was coming up a blank.

Since the beginning of the week, Steve had began to drive his truck to work, leaving in the morning with only a quick kiss to Danny’s forehead and an excuse of getting a head start on the ‘pile of paperwork’ on his desk. A head start on the ‘pile of paperwork’ Danny knew didn’t exist. There was no before work make out happening like it usually did leaving Danny feeling bereft . This also meant Danny had to drive himself to work alone, the satisfaction of finally getting to drive his Camaro not as strong as if he’d had Steve in the car too. Normally, with them now happily living together, they would car share, driving to and from work together but it seemed right now, his boyfriend couldn’t be in that much of a close vicinity to Danny. He couldn’t for the life of him think what he could possibly have done to receive such hostility from his boyfriend but he wasn’t going to stand for it.

When Steve came home tonight from wherever it was that he was hiding from Danny, he was going to confront him and see where it left their relationship.

*********************************

Steve sat nursing a beer which the bartender had passed to him nearly ten minutes ago. It had long ago sweated out and was currently heating up in the clamp his right hand had around it. He couldn’t help that his earlier excitement had turned into nerves but the company he was waiting on, he hadn’t seen in years. At that moment, he heard a slight cough next to his left ear, the waft of perfume that followed it hadn’t changed one bit.

Swinging round on his bar stool, he came face to face with the one lady he never thought he’d be in company of again.

“Well hello you, long time no see, eh?” Steve grinned, his right hand moulding to their left cheek as he leaned in.

*********************************

It was close to eleven when Danny decided to call it a night and head to bed. He had waited nearly 6 hours for Steve to come home after he had left the office just after 4 with no explanation of where he was going. Danny was sick of it. Steve was perfectly fine with the others but he was sneaking around Danny and ignoring him every chance he got. What had he done to deserve this?

Just as Danny was reaching for the corner of the bed sheet, he heard the lock of the door click and the _whoosh_ of the front door as it opened, letting the cold night air in. Danny let go of the sheet and opted to sit at the foot of the bed instead, determined to get to the bottom of this tonight.

After listening to the click and clack of Steve moving around downstairs, he finally heard the creak of the 3rd and 7th step on the stairs and eventually the turn of the doorknob to their bedroom. Here goes nothing.

Steve froze as he opened their bedroom door to reveal Danny sat at the end of their bed, sleep pants already on and his bare, hairy chest on display. It made Steve swallow his heart back down from his throat to his chest. He hadn’t expected Danny to still be up.

“Danny…hey Babe, what are you still doing up?” Steve asked, finally willing himself to unfreeze.

Danny eyed him carefully, something about Steve looked different. He looked tired, worn out, like maybe he’d actually been overworking himself this week. Maybe Danny had got all of this wrong and was just being paranoid. What if Steve was telling the truth and had really been catching up on paperwork or visiting the Governor for 3 hour meetings most days? What if Danny was about to accuse his boyfriend of something when he was totally innocent?

“I, uh, I was just getting ready for bed when I heard you come through the door so I thought I’d stay up so I’d finally get to see you for once instead of just at work,” Danny replied, his palms sweaty at the undecided thought of whether to bring up Steve’s behaviour from this week. He stood from the bed and stepped closer to Steve, only to have his boyfriend step back from him. That’s when he smelt it.

Perfume.

Perfume that would forever haunt him because he knew exactly who it belonged to.

“Catherine,” Danny whispered, his heart already clenching at the revelation of why Steve had been ignoring him this week.

Danny wasn’t a detective for nothing so he saw the way Steve’s eyes widened slightly at the mentioned of his ex’s name. “What did you say, Danny?” Steve questioned. Oh, so he was going to play dumb? Make out he didn’t have a clue what Danny was going on about?

“I said, Catherine, you’ve been with her haven’t you? That’s where you’ve been for the past 7 hours whilst I’ve been here waiting for my boyfriend to come home so I could see him. My boyfriend who has blatantly ignored me all week and now I know why,” Danny explained, his voice gradually rising until eventually he was shouting.

Steve stepped back once more from Danny, his boyfriend’s finger inches away from his face. “Danny, I promise you, it’s not what you think!” Steve hurried out, before continuing, “Danny, I swear to you. There’s nothing going on between me and Catherine.”

Danny scoffed, shaking his head and swiping his hand over his gel-free hair, “Of course it is what I think Steve. It’s fucking clear what you’ve been doing. All week you’ve ignored me and I was so ready to call you up on it and then when you stepped through that door all I saw was someone who looked like they hadn’t slept in nearly a week. Someone who looked so overworked and ready for a break that I was ready to drop it,” Danny paused, he stepped up again closer to Steve, his index finger persistently poking the breast bone there, “I honestly thought I’d got it all wrong this week, that you were telling the truth every time you left early in the morning or when you escaped the office at night without so much as a ‘see you later, Danny’. But no, I was right.”

Danny slumped back down onto the bed, the fight seeping out of him knowing already that he’d lost his boyfriend. Defeated, he dropped his head to his chest before chancing one last glance at his boyfriend to see if he would put up any kind of fight. He looked divided, like he wanted to say something to Danny but didn’t know how to. That wasn’t good enough anymore. He was done.

Grabbing a t-shirt from the middle drawer, his phone and watch from the bedside table and his trainers from the bottom of their wardrobe, Danny walked up to his boyfriend (is he still classed as that?) who still had yet to say anything. Placing a hand onto Steve’s chest, Danny looked into his eyes, “I thought you were different, Steve. I honestly did. I thought I had found my soulmate, looking how fucking wrong I was. Of all people you could have cheated with Steve, why?… Why did it have to be your ex?” Danny choked out, his voice breaking along with his heart.

It was the front door slamming shut and the roar of the Camaro that brought Steve out of his trance. At that point he realised that he may well have just lost the absolute best thing in the world.

It was the heavy weight of the black velvet box in his pant pocket that made him realise that maybe sneaking around with the team this week and recruiting his ex onto his proposal plan probably wasn’t the best thing to do. He needed to find Danny and explain all, even if it meant all the hard work from this week went down the drain.


	2. Ask Me Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny was left heartbroken thinking his boyfriend had cheated with his ex, therefore, Steve's got a lot of making up to do and needs to reveal why it is that he's been ignoring Danny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just want to say, thank you so much for your awesome comments on chapter 1. This chapter is a lottttt longer than the first but I didn't think it would sit right if I split it into more than two chapters so here it is!
> 
> Feedback is always appreciated!
> 
> Xx

Danny pulled up to his favourite lookout spot at Diamond Head. The sun was put to bed long ago and in replace was the bright moon, highlighting the beautiful stars that scattered the sky.

Releasing a sigh, he grabbed his phone from the centre console, not even noticing the multiple missed calls from Steve and stepped out from the Camaro. He sat himself down on the brick wall which overlooked his thinking spot but could he doing any thinking? No.

He felt no peace sitting here like he usually did. He felt no anger towards Steve. He didn’t even feel any resentment towards the man who he thought loved him. He felt numb. That’s all. Numb.

White noise swirled around in his ears making it hard to concentrate on his surroundings. His heart burned in his chest. It felt like it was being cut out with a laser beam. Never had he felt such pain at being cheated on and believe me, it wasn’t the first time.

Why was he never good enough? His love for Rachel was never strong enough and now his love for Steve wasn’t either. What was wrong with him?

Turning over his phone in his palm, he swiped up to unlock the screen, only then noticing the insistent missed calls from Steve. _He can wait_ Danny thought, swiping through his contacts until he reached the one person who’s love was everlasting. His mum.

Working out the time difference quickly, he realised it would be nearing 6am in New Jersey. That would have to do. Pressing the icon of his mum’s picture, he listened to the consistent dial tone, relaxing him until he heard his mum’s voice.

“Daniel, Baby, is everything ok?” Clara’s worried voice carried through, “What are you doing ringing at this time? Surely it’s still the middle of the night there?”

“Ma,” Danny’s voice broke off, shattering his mother’s heart with just one syllable. “Ma, why am I never enough?” Danny continued, sounding nothing like the nearly 40-year old man he was and more like the young boy that used to cuddle in next to his mother during a thunderstorm whilst his siblings slept in their own beds.

“Oh Daniel, Sweetheart, what’s happened?” Clara’s voice crackled through the line sounding much more awake than she had a few minutes before.

Danny felt a tear slide down his cheek, he hadn’t got the energy to wipe it away so it slid until it dropped off his chin onto his t-shirt. “Ma, what do I do wrong? I thought Steve was the one, I really did but he clearly didn’t think the same about me,” he paused, sucking in a breath in an attempt to keep his sobs at bay, “Ma, I don’t know what to do. Tell me please...” he trailed off. All he wanted was to be back in New Jersey wrapped up in his mother’s embrace.

Clara felt her own eyes well up at the sounds her son was making, “Oh Daniel... start from the beginning. Tell me what’s happened, Honey,” she probed, settling down in her husband’s armchair ready to console her eldest baby from nearly 5,000 miles away.

******************************************

Steve knew exactly where Danny had gone. It was the same place where he always went when they had petty arguments and needed space or when Rachel was on his case about the custody agreement. But this was neither of those things. It wasn’t a petty argument, it was a heartbreaking accusation for the both of them. One that Steve needed to fix before his relationship was beyond being able to be repaired.

Grabbing his own set of keys from the bowl beside the front door, he closed the door and locked it. Climbing into the driver’s seat, it was only then that it hit him with just how bad of a boyfriend he’d been this week. And boy, did it hit him. It was strong enough to knock the breath out of him.

How could he have treated his boyfriend the way he had been doing? He had been so wrapped up in making sure his proposal to Danny was one to remember that he never thought to stop and think how all the sneaking around was affecting his lover. He had to admit now that meeting and recruiting Catherine onto the plan was probably the worse thing he could have done.

He really needed to fix this. Now. He needed Danny to see there was nothing going on between him and Catherine.

Turning the key to start the ignition, he pulled out of the driveway and floored the gas, determined to get to Danny as soon as possible. Driving along the highway had never felt more torturous. The closer he got to Danny, the more scenarios that went through his mind on how he could fix this but nothing felt like it would be enough to fix the big crack forming between them.

***************************************

Danny had just finished up his conversation with his mother when he heard the rumble of the Silverado pulling up. He tilted his head down waiting for the inevitable conversation Steve had surely come to have so he could break up with him. He could never compete against Catherine, not with the history they had.

The hesitant click of the door as it shut quietly in an attempt not to startle him was the only warning Danny got of how close Steve now was to him. Then the gentle voice of his (ex?) boyfriend washed over him.

“Danny,” Steve barely whispered out, “Can I sit with you?”

The choked out grunt Danny released was the only response he got. Steve would take it.

Cocking his legs over the brick wall, he sat down, legs thumping against the rough cement. They were only inches apart but both of them had never felt more like a million miles away from each other.

“I understand if you don’t want to talk to me, Danny, I really do. I don’t blame you. But I really hope you’ll listen to what I’ve got to say,” Steve begged, his voice gradually becoming more confident.

Danny gave no reaction to say whether he’d acknowledged Steve’s words but either way he continued, “I understand that your faith in me right now Danny is low, probably even non-existent but when I said to you that nothing was going on between me and Catherine, I truly meant it,” Steve let out a breath, his left hand inching over towards Danny’s right, just stopping before he could touch it, “I admit to you Danny, I did see Catherine earlier.”

The noise that released between Danny’s lips would forever be heartbreaking to Steve. It sounded so painful but he knew he needed to get to the bottom of this.

“I met up with her at a bar but it wasn’t for what you think it was for. I needed her help,” Steve pleaded, “You see Danny, I’ve been needing the whole team’s help with something I’ve been planning.”

At the mention of their teammates, Danny lifted his head and turned to look Steve in the eye. “What could you possibly need not only our team’s help for but also your exes, eh Steve? There is nothing and I mean nothing in this world that you would need her help with ever again and I thought she was gone from our lives years ago but clearly you’ve been keeping in touch with her,” Danny’s voice sounded wrecked from all the crying he’d done on the phone with his mum and having Steve come here now and actually admit to his face that he’d been in the company of his ex, whether it was platonically or not, was just re-breaking his heart.

“Danny, when I told you months ago that I was no longer in contact with Catherine, I was telling the truth. It was only last week that I reached out to her and it was simply because I needed her to provide me with a contact she knew,” the unconvinced look in Danny’s eye proved to Steve that he was going to have to ruin the surprise and tell Danny all.

Danny moved his right hand so it rested on Steve’s outstretched one. “I really want to believe you Steve, I really do because I love you so much and I thought I could trust every word that came out of your mouth but after this week, it’s just proved to me that those walls I built up around my heart before you, they were there for a reason. You managed to break them down and now I’m just going to have to build them back up again,” Danny concluded, swinging his legs over the brick wall, determined to leave his lover and heart at Diamond Head.

Just as he reached for the door handle, a familiar hand wrapped around his wrist stopping him. “Danny, wait. Please. Before you go, let me show you why I was with Catherine, why I’ve been sneaking around, why I’ve been ignoring you so I wouldn’t let out the surprise,” Steve pleaded.

“What do you mean ‘let out the surprise’?” Danny queried, feeling utterly confused and emotionally drained. All he wanted was to go home and climb into bed. But where was home now?

Receiving no reply to his question and ready to rip Steve a new one after having him begging him to stay and then ignoring him, Danny turned around. The sight that greeted him made his heart jump up into his throat, drop back down to his stomach before gently rising back into his chest cavity.

There was Steve.

_Down on one knee._

With what looked to be a silver engagement band glistening between his right index finger and thumb.

“Steve, what is this? What are you doing?” Danny strangled out, overcome with too many emotions in such a short space of time.

Steve puffed out a breath of air, relieved that Danny at least hadn’t slapped him or punched him when he’d turned around. “I’m doing what I should have done years ago but also what I’ve been planning for the last week. Danny when I said that I’d been recruiting the team’s help for something, it was for this. Well not actually this because I’d got something else planned to actually propose to you but I think I like this better. I mean it’s at your favourite spot and it’s just the two of us-”

“Steve, stop babbling, that’s my forte,” Danny cracked a smile, the first one that had graced his lips in hours, “Explain all. Now.”

Steve let out a hearty laugh seeing the faint smile on his boyfriend’s lips. “Okay, Danny,” he let out a nervous breath, “I’ve been planning on proposing to you. We’d got it all planned, the day…the venue… I’ve even managed to convince Rachel to let us have the kids for the day so they could be there when I finally got down on one knee. The team, they’ve been helping me organise it all. Tani, bless her heart, I think has got a bit carried away with it and thinks she’s planning the actual wedding not just a proposal,” Steve finished up, watching Danny carefully to gage his reaction.

Danny began to smile, thinking maybe he had got it all wrong. Then a thought popped into his head, the smile dropping from his face. “What about Catherine? What had you ‘recruited’ her for then? Why contact her if you’d got all the help that you needed, right here?”

“Like I said Danny, I needed a contact of hers… you see… this band I’m holding right here, it’s not from just your average jewellers. Catherine knows someone who was in the Navy with us that got medically discharged. When they left, they started creating jewellery as a way of recovering, personalising everything and this here is personalised for you,” Steve held the band out further, preparing himself for what he was going to say next, “So Danny, this is definitely not the way I wanted to do it and the team are going to kill me when they realise I’ve done it without them… but will you Daniel Williams, do the absolute pleasure of becoming my husband?”

The tears that Danny had not long ago willed back into his tear ducts were making a reappearance. Shakily lifting his right hand up to cup Steve’s cheek, he moved a step closer to the man he had accused of cheating.

“Steve, I’m so sorry,” Danny began. Steve felt his heart drop, he’d ruined it all and broke Danny’s heart. He’d ruined the best thing in his life by meeting up with his ex and now Danny was going to break his heart. Danny continued, “Steve, I’m so sorry that I accused you of cheating. When you came home smelling of Catherine, all I could think was ‘here we go again’ and I really shouldn’t have done that. You’ve never gave me any reason to doubt you before and I shouldn’t have doubted you about this. My judgement got clouded over and I think it was because she’s your ex. So for that, I’m sorry. But ask me again.”

“Huh?” Steve frowned, feeling completely confused.

Danny smirked, “I saidddd, ask me again.”

Steve cleared his throat, catching on to what Danny was asking, “Daniel Williams, the love of my life, will you do me the great honour of becoming my husband? To stay with me through all of the awesome years to come and to grow old and wrinkly with me?” Steve asked, winking cheekily at Danny when he mentioned about becoming old and wrinkly.

Danny giggled. He actually _giggled_ at Steve’s antics, “Yes Steve, I would love to. I can’t wait to grow old and wrinkly with you.”

Steve jumped up from the bent knee that had long ago gone dead and went to slide the ring on Danny’s finger.

Danny stopped Steve, “Ah, ah, ah. I wanna see this personalised ring first, see what’s caused all of this mess.” Taking the ring from Steve’s grip, he held it up, glad that the moon was strong enough to make it a light night. There on the inner band was what caused Danny to pause, all air leaving his lungs.

Inscribed in such beautiful, cursive writing were the words ‘ _I’m forever yours if you’re forever mine, Danno?_ ’

His heart stopped, not believing that he was so close to giving up this amazing man all for an accusation he had no proof of.

Looking up into Steve’s eyes, he slid the ring onto his finger before leaning in close to Steve. Cupping both cheeks, he placed a delicate kiss onto Steve’s soft lips, “It’s beautiful, thank you so much, Babe and in answer to your question, if you’re gonna be mine forever then I’d love to be yours forever.”

Steve’s heart clenched at Danny’s words, pleased that he wouldn’t be going back home alone tonight, well this morning seeing as it was nearly 1:30am now. “There’s just one problem though Danny,” Steve laughed, “how are we meant to tell the other’s we’re already engaged now and don’t need to do all the stuff we’ve been planning?”


End file.
